MSL Post Landing - Commissioning Period & Early Observations, Commissioning Activity Period 1B - Sols 9 through 16 Options

[Ant103]

Yihiii, we are roving Mars again ! Excellent ! And a new rover orientation now.

Sol 16 Navcam panoramic



I just can't believe that these pictures were taken since about less than 4 hour on Mars. When I do some trail in mountains (like Pyrenees these times) I stitch my panoramic in about 1 or 2 days after they were taken

[dvandorn]

And ChemCam is getting really good signal, great details in the spectra. It is wondrous to get this kind of information so quickly, no long integration times to slow us down with this instrument.

Will this tend to make some of the science stops along the traverse path a little shorter than we're used to with the MERs, I wonder?

-the other Doug

[Hungry4info]

Time for a route map!

[Explorer1]

Well, there's still the APXS with its half-lives counting down. Eventually integration times will be affected like on Oppy.

[Tesheiner]

I knew in advance I would see the very first tracks from MSL start from nowhere (so to speak), unlike any of the MER wheel tracks (which at their very beginning start from the edge of their landers). But it's still sort of eerie to see it.

It's a strange picture, indeed, the tracks starting from nowhere. Looks like the rover was teleported (ZAP!) to that place.

[3d_mars]

Could the initial hydrogen signal be from an invisible layer of frost? It is still technically winter at the site.

Hydrogen was also found on the calibration targets on the rover.

[fredk]

It's a strange picture, indeed, the tracks starting from nowhere.

That is so true. This will definitely be a signature image from the mission, and I'd say from all of planetary exploration:

I'd say this deserves the "postcard" treatment...

[pmetschan]

I knew in advance I would see the very first tracks from MSL start from nowhere (so to speak), unlike any of the MER wheel tracks (which at their very beginning start from the edge of their landers). But it's still sort of eerie to see it.

-the other Doug

Ok here is an update of my MARDI map then. I am a bit confused about where those 2 rocks/mounds (Purple Arrows?) are then that appear in the post drive image, compared to the MARDI frame. What I am really attempting to do here is figure out "precisely" how big and in what orientation the rover was in (on that MARDI frame) post landing?

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[akuo]

Well, there's still the APXS with its half-lives counting down. Eventually integration times will be affected like on Oppy.

It's the Mössbauer spectrometre on MERs that has the short (under a year) half-life. The APX's material's half-life is a lot longer, 18 years. That's hardly going to affect us at all.

[Paolo]

Hydrogen was also found on the calibration targets on the rover.

hydrogen was only found on the first shots to Coronation, so it must be a very thin surficial layer. I was wondering: could this be contamination from hydrazine (N2H4) from the Skycrane exhausts?

[Doc]

could this be contamination from hydrazine (N2H4) from the Skycrane exhausts?

You'd expect N to be in the spectra too (is it? )

[Doc]

'Bradbury Landing', how fitting! The future Martians ought to erect his statue there with plaque that should say 'from here she (Curiosity) took off'.

[Pando]

Here's a quick and dirty identification of features from MARDI image (frame # 545) with the image taken after the drive. It really gives a sense of height from which the MARDI image was taken.

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[djellison]

They turned 120 degrees to the right.

[djellison]

Well, there's still the APXS with its half-lives counting down. Eventually integration times will be affected like on Oppy.

You're confusing the APXS with the Mossbauer. The APXS doesn't suffer in the way the Mossbauer does ( at least, not on rover lifetime scales )